


The Water

by raininshadows



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Genre: Canon-Typical Timeline Coherency, Gen, Music
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raininshadows/pseuds/raininshadows
Summary: Marin washes up on a strange new island and meets a bandoneon-playing bird-man.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	The Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ysavvryl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/gifts).



> I hope you like this fic. Happy Yuletide!

Marin woke up, which she hadn’t been expecting. 

She was lying on a beach, but not one she recognized. The cry of a seagull was fading away in her ears, and the waves were washing onto the beach. Otherwise, she was alone as far as she could see. 

Another seagull squawked near her head, and Marin sat up quickly. Something on her back helped push her up; when she turned to try to get a look at it, the seagull flapped away loudly as a pair of wings swept through the place it had been.

Gray-and-white wings sprouted from Marin’s back, long enough to drag on the sand behind her. She reached back to touch them with one hand and felt perfectly normal feathers, like a seagull’s. 

She pushed herself to her feet, stumbling as the new weight on her back interfered with her balance. There was no one else around that she could see except the seagulls, and the sun was high overhead. She seemed to be on a small island with a hill at one tip. 

Marin began to sing along with the seagulls, and when she stopped, she heard some other sound that wasn’t the waves or the gulls. It seemed to be coming from the hill. When she looked closer, she could see what looked like a person sitting on the hill, low enough that it was hard to distinguish them from the hill behind them. But something seemed odd about their silhouette that she couldn’t pin down. 

Marin’s wings seemed to help push her along as she walked, pressing down with every step as though they had a mind of their own. It took Marin only a few minutes to walk across the island and reach the hill. As she drew closer, she could make out more details of the strange figure. They seemed to be a human-sized blue-and-yellow parrot, playing a bandoneon with their eyes closed. They hadn’t noticed her. 

“Hello,” Marin said finally. They still didn’t seem to notice, too deep in their music. Instead, Marin sat down and began to sing along. She didn’t know the words to whatever song this was, but she picked the tune up fairly quickly. The song was fairly simple and repetitive, but jaunty and cheerful. 

The bandoneon-playing hitched as she joined in, but the musician continued almost immediately. After a minute or two, they came to an end, and the musician put down the bandoneon and opened their eyes. 

“Hello,” Marin said again. 

“Ah, hello,” the musician said brightly. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you at first. I was too absorbed by my song.” 

Marin smiled. “I’ve had that happen to me. Your song was lovely. Where did you learn it?”

The musician seemed to smile, although it was hard to tell with his beak. “I learned it from my teacher, many years ago. He’s since passed away, but his songs help me remember him.” 

Marin nodded. “I taught someone my favorite song once so he would remember me,” she said. “He… he had to leave our island, but I hope he’s still out there somewhere and remembers me.”

“Well, it seems like you’ve left your island as well, so perhaps you’ll be able to find him yourself,” the musician said. “Unless you live here, and I didn’t see you when I arrived.” His tone seemed to carry a question.

Marin shook her head. “I… there was a disaster, and my island was destroyed,” she admitted. “I woke up here, but this isn’t my island.” For a moment, she thought back to finding Link on the beach. No wonder he’d seemed alarmed when he woke up. Perhaps the dream had kept him less disoriented. 

“I haven’t introduced myself,” the musician said. “I’m Kass.” He paused, and then added, “I’m one of the Rito. Are you a Hylian, or a Rito?” 

The Rito must be the bird-people, then, Marin thought. And Hyrule was where Link had said he was from; perhaps she had actually found her way to the place he came from. “Um, neither. I’m from Koholint Island.” 

Kass stared at her for a moment longer, then nodded. “All right. Well, this hill we’re on is called Koholit Rock, and the island is Eventide Island. But I’ve never heard of a Koholint Island.” 

Marin had been expecting it, but a wave of disappointment hit her at that. “It was very far away,” she said. “A stranger washed up there once, but he was sailing very far. I never heard of anyone else coming to the island or leaving it.” 

“If you got here when your island was destroyed, perhaps someone else did too,” Kass said. “Did anyone else live on your island with you?”

“Of course,” Marin said, looking out at the water. “Madam MeowMeow, and Grandma Yahoo, and Old Man Ulrira, and the man who ran the Trendy Game, and my father Tarin…” 

It occured to Marin suddenly that she was quite possibly the only one who’d escaped the dream, and everyone else from the island had vanished like a popped bubble. “But I don’t think any of them survived,” she said, tears suddenly threatening to spill from her eyes. “I think I’m the last one left.” 

Kass seemed somewhat surprised, but as she began crying, he wrapped one feathery arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I can help you look. There’s lots of beaches along the Necluda coast where they could have landed.” 

Marin couldn’t tell how long it took her to calm down. After a little while, Kass started humming another song she didn’t recognize. Focusing on the music, she was able to help get her breathing under control. 

“Thank you,” she said finally, standing up. She had an easier time on this attempt to stand up; her body seemed to have adjusted to the new weight more easily. Kass joined her, compressing his bandoneon into a small case she hadn’t noticed. “I don’t know what they’ll look like if they survived. I didn’t have wings before I woke up here. But I’d like to try to look for them.” 

Kass nodded, as if this was making a lot of sense. “I can try to teach you to fly, so we can get off this island,” he offered. “It probably won’t be the same as teaching my daughters back home, but I’ll do my best. The winds here are good.” 

“I’d like that,” Marin said. “And I can teach you the same song I taught that boy, so you can help me find him.” 

Kass seemed to smile at that. “I’m always interested in learning new songs.” 

He led her over to an area where there was a relatively small drop to the ground below. “Right, so the first step of flying is learning to glide…”


End file.
